Lu Jiaguang was sharp, and asked, “Jiaxin, you just said the trafficker could accurately name our eldest uncle and me. How did she know that?”
Lu Jiaxin shook her head. “I only mentioned that my old hometown was in Feng County, and that old woman asked whether my father was Lu Hongjun from the department store in the capital. She also said my eldest uncle Lu Tiejun had been party secretary for over twenty years, and everyone in the surrounding villages knew he liked to throw his weight around.”
“And what was her name? Where was she from?”
Lu Jiaxin shook her head. “She never gave her name. She just cried to me about how her daughter-in-law was vicious and her son wouldn’t tolerate her, and told me stepmothers were rarely good people, so I should be careful. Since she seemed to know so much about my family, I didn’t suspect anything.”
Hearing this, Lu Jiaguang felt this wasn’t so simple. “What were her son’s and daughter-in-law’s names? Where did they work?”
Lu Jiaxin said, “I don’t know, she never said.”
“She didn’t even say what city her son worked in?”
Lu Jiaxin shook her head again. “No, she didn’t say anything.”
In fact, the old woman’s son worked in Jin City, but exactly which factory and its name really hadn’t been mentioned. She was holding this back deliberately, with other plans in mind.
The more Lu Jiaguang listened, the more he felt this old woman had come prepared. But what enemies could a young girl like Jiaxin possibly have made, for someone to go to such lengths to harm her? He’d already suspected Ding Jing had set this whole thing up, and now he was certain.
Ding Jing knew Lu Jiaguang now suspected her. She had no way to prove her innocence, but she reacted quickly, raising her hand and swearing an oath. “If I had anything to do with Jiaxin being kidnapped, may my intestines rot through and I die of it, and may Siyi live out her days destitute and alone.”
Lu Hongjun took her hand and said, “Xiaojing, I believe this has nothing to do with you.”
Lu Jiaguang said nothing. He put no stock in oaths, only in evidence. If he found proof, he’d send her to prison.
Lu Jiajie found the display distasteful, and turned away with a look of disgust to ask Lu Jiaxin, “Why didn’t you call me and Big Brother after you escaped? These past weeks we’ve nearly gone out of our minds with worry.”
Lu Jiaxin explained, “I’d lost my memory, I didn’t even know my own name, so there was no way to call any of you.”
Lu Jiaguang felt a wave of pain, if their third aunt knew of this from beyond the grave, how her heart would ache.
Lu Jiajie asked, “So how did you get through this past month or so?”
Lu Jiaxin said, “I was unconscious for three days before I woke up. With no money to go to a hospital, I just had to tough it out. The shack was full of mosquitoes, I could barely sleep…”
Lu Jiajie was stunned. “A shack? Why were you living in a shack?”
Lu Jiaxin explained, “Xue Mao’s parents died three years ago of illness. His brother and sister-in-law seized the entire family property, claiming he was a foundling, and drove him out of the village. He wandered to the ancient capital, going hungry more often than not, sleeping under bridges at night with nowhere else to go. It was only through an old childhood friend of his father’s that he got that shack. Those past few days, he’d spent everything he earned from odd jobs on me, while going hungry himself.”
In fact, her days in the ancient capital hadn’t been nearly as miserable as she made them sound. That old woman hadn’t been a professional trafficker, seeing that she’d stopped breathing, she’d only taken her watch, leaving the jade pendant she wore untouched. That pendant was mutton-fat jade, and once she’d woken up she’d had Xue Mao trade it for eighty yuan.
The moment she had the money, she’d gone straight to a hospital for an examination and gotten medicine, then rented a room and spent over a week recovering before she felt better. Once her health improved somewhat, she and Xue Mao had started selling street food from a stall. The reason she was making things sound so dire now was to deepen the Lu brothers’ contempt for Ding Jing and her daughter.
Lu Jiaguang felt deep gratitude toward Xue Mao, saving someone was easy, but caring for a person who’d lost their memory was hard, not to mention that he himself was barely scraping by. He said sincerely, “Young man, thank you for saving our Jiaxin. Whatever you need, feel free to ask, as long as it’s within our power, we’ll make it happen.”
Lu Jiaxin said, “Big Brother, this life-saving debt is mine to repay myself.”
Lu Jiaguang felt she’d become more mature and responsible after all this, but he didn’t agree with what she’d said. “You’re a student, right now what you should focus on is your studies. As for Xue Mao, your father and I will make sure he’s taken care of.”
Only then did Lu Hongjun speak up. “Yes, Xinxin, school starts again in a little over a week, you should start getting ready these next couple of days.”
Lu Jiaxin said, deliberately, “Retake the whole year, and then right before the next exam, feed me something tainted again so I get a stomachache during the test, and waste another year for nothing.”
Lu Jiaguang shot up from his seat. “Jiaxin, what did you just say? Your stomachache during the exam—”
Ding Jing said through tears, “Lu Jiaxin, I know you’ve never liked me, but you can’t make up wild accusations to slander me.”
With that, tears streaming down her face, she grabbed Lu Hongjun’s arm. “Old Lu, that morning you ate the same breakfast, and so did Siyi and I. If there really had been something wrong with the food, all of us would have gotten sick, not just her.”
Lu Jiaxin looked at her, crying so pitifully with tears streaming down like pear blossoms in the rain, genuinely arousing sympathy.
Lu Hongjun pulled her into his arms to comfort her. “I believe you. Jiaxin, we all ate the same thing that day, your stomachache must have just been a coincidence.”
Lu Jiaxin said without a shred of mercy, “They always say a stepmother comes with a stepfather too, seems that old saying really is true. Big Brother, I don’t dare live under the same roof as this venomous mother and daughter any longer. This time I got lucky and escaped with my life, next time I might not be so fortunate.”
Ding Jing pushed Lu Hongjun away, wiped her tears, and said, putting on a brave face, “Old Lu, if this family has no room for me and Siyi, then we’ll just leave.”
Lu Hongjun immediately grabbed her arm. “You’re my wife, Siyi is my daughter, this is your home too, where would you even go?”
Lu Jiaxin looked at Lu Hongjun coldly. “Dad, this family can have her or me, choose.”
Lu Hongjun felt his daughter was being unreasonable, and his tone hardened somewhat. “Jiaxin, what nonsense are you talking? We’re a family, and a family should live together.”
Lu Jiaxin swore outright. “Family, my ass. Zhao Siyi seduced my fiancé, that vicious woman drugged me before the exam so I couldn’t get into university, and even that trafficker might have been arranged by her. Lu Hongjun, either you make them get out today, or I leave.”
Lu Jiaguang also felt his sister could no longer live with this mother and daughter, otherwise, one day she really might end up dead. But before making his own stance clear, he wanted to see what choice Lu Hongjun would make first.
Lu Jiajie, living at his in-laws’ place, had no say in the matter and kept quiet.
Naturally Lu Hongjun didn’t want to choose, one was his wife, the other his own daughter, he couldn’t stand to send either one away.
Watching him hesitate like this, was there anything Lu Jiaguang still didn’t understand? This meant choosing the new wife and stepdaughter over his own flesh and blood. He felt deeply disappointed and pained, and couldn’t understand how his once shrewd and decisive third uncle had come to this. Was he really so blinded by lust and infatuation?
Seeing this, Lu Jiaxin no longer wanted to waste any more words. She called Xue Mao to go back to the room and gather their things.